5 Things Wives Should Remember About Their Husbands

May 13, 2016

As wives, it’s easy to take our husbands for granted … or to expect the impossible from them. To prevent that, here are 5 things wives should remember about their husbands!

I remember what I thought marriage would be like long before I got married. I loved to fantasize what my husband would be like – how absolutely everything I did would be irresistible to him. How absolutely everything he did would be irresistible to me.

My husband would be cute. He’d probably wear glasses. He’d wear cool boxer shorts as pajamas. I never thought about what kind of job he would have, but he’d wear a tie to work every day, come home and shower me with love and affection.

We could sit out and watch the stars at night. We’d take romantic walks in the rain before returning to our haven of a home. We’d embrace while watching sunsets night after night.

Life was going to be oh so romantic.

Then I stopped daydreaming. After years of waiting and fantasizing, God brought along the right man for me – and he was cute. He did wear glasses. And he did wear cool boxer shorts as pajamas.

His job has changed over the years. He doesn’t typically wear a tie to work every day. And while we do experience love and affection when we’re together, real life has a habit of getting in the way. Kids and chores and work stress have a funny way of overshadowing all the affection.

As for my other dreams, we’ve sat out to watch the stars a couple times in our 13 years of marriage, but head indoors once the mosquitoes start biting. I don’t particularly like taking walks in the rain – it only happens when we’re caught in a sudden downpour and are running for cover. And we’d both like to embrace while watching sunsets night after night, but the sun has impeccable timing and happens to set right at dinnertime for most of the year – or, in the summer, it hits right when we’re putting our children to bed.

Like me, I think many women have a tendency to think our husbands should be a certain way. Maybe like a character we saw on a TV show or movie. Maybe like someone we read about in a book. Maybe like someone we made up in our imagination because he would treat us just the way we felt we deserved.

There are so many flaws with this kind of dreaming, though. Once we start thinking about our daydreams long enough, we begin to compare real men with fictional characters.

In all my daydreaming, I wouldn’t ever dare to imagine a husband would love to watch football all Sunday afternoon or play video games. Why would he ever want to have those kinds of interests if he was strumming me a love song on his guitar? Or reading me poetry by firelight?

At the core of my fantasies, I selfishly imagined my husband’s time and affections would focus on me. Not only would life like that rob my husband of his own interests and gifts, but it would also end up suffocating me.

As women buy into a fantasy world, marriage can become a lot harder because of the imaginary expectations placed on husbands. Because your imagination is not based on reality, it can be easy to judge your husband against an impossible imaginary standard.

As a woman who spent years imagining my husband before I actually met him, I’ve realized that now I’m a wife, I need to remember five things about my husband. (You may need to remember these 5 things about your husband, too.)

5 Things Wives Should Remember About Their Husbands

1. Husbands are men. That means they’re human.

Since husbands are not the fantasies you’ve created in your mind – or have seen created on the screen and in literature – remember that they’re men. Like every single human ever created, they have unique strengths and weaknesses. They have unique likes and dislikes. They have their own personal history and family history that have shaped them.

2. Judge your husband as you would like to be judged.

Just as most of us would absolutely hate to be judged by impossible standards based on fantasy – or expected to be perfect – we should skip the unattainable judging. Our husbands are just human. (See point #1.) And as humans, they’re imperfect – just like you and me.

3. Husbands aren’t mind readers.

Going back to my imaginary husband point, our real life husbands will not truly know what we’re thinking or what we’d like unless we tell them. Husbands just aren’t mind readers. And as a complex woman, it’s likely no one can read your mind. (At times, you might even have a little trouble discerning exactly what you’re thinking. I know I do.) Don’t place an impossible mind reading burden on your husband – just talk to him.

4. Your husband isn’t you.

Keep in mind that you didn’t marry yourself. You may feel like you married your soul mate, but there’s a huge difference between soul mate and identical twin. Remember that you have different interests, personalities, and passions. That’s a great thing! If you were alike, life would be pretty boring. Celebrate and appreciate your husband’s differences, and encourage him to pursue his passions.

Depending on your husband, the thought and act of respect could be a tall order. But it’s still necessary. If you’re having trouble with this, pray every single day that your husband would become worthy of respect – and pray that you will grow to respect him.

As you begin to shift from your fantasy world to a realistic one, you may need to say a fond farewell to your sweet imaginations. Do it, though. Get your goodbyes over with and get on with building your real, actual marriage with your real, actual husband. And enjoy the reality!

As a wife, what are some things you think wives should remember about their husbands?

Disclosure: Purchasing items through links in this post will result in a commission for No Place Like Home. Thank you for supporting this website!

About Hilary

Hilary Bernstein is a Christ follower, wife, homeschooling mama, and writer who believes every Christian woman can transform her home into a haven. She loves laughing, getting handwritten letters, hosting friends and family for dinner, going on date nights with her husband, singing along to the radio while driving her kids around, and relaxing on family vacations at the beach. The author of several eBooks, Hilary loves to encourage her e-mail subscribers!

Lovely comments

Don’t take your “nice guy” for granted. It’s really easy to take a nice nit demanding guy for granted. He is still a man with needs. Just because he tires not to ask for too much “time together) doesn’t mean it’s not a need. Just because he handles our nagging with grace doesn’t mean he doesn’t need still need kindness and respect. I have unfortunately seen too many “nice guys” struggle or even walk way all together. Of course nothing like that could justify leaving a marriage, I’m sure it could have been made better for bother parties….unfortunately it is human nature to take what we can get….both husband and wives can fall into that trap. And often times the nice one finally has enough and makes poor decisions…

Thank you! This is helpful, timely, and true! I’m so glad to see this topic getting traction. We don’t give men enough credit and I’ve been trying harder to let my husband know how much I value him, as well as manhood and fatherhood in general! :)
(By the way, love your name….)

What a great post! I especially love the bit about how if all of his time and affection was focused on you, it’d be stifling. I have that thought on the odd occasion I watch a romantic film or read a romance novel – “Really? I’m supposed to think this guy is hot? Give me my space, weirdo!”

I think the golden rule applies especially to marriage. At the end of the day my husband wants the same thing I want: to be loved and respected; to feel supported as he pursues his dreams and goals; to have the space to develop as a person. And forgiveness. I think he’s had to practice forgiveness with me more than I’ve had to practice it with him; but marriage really can’t survive long without forgiveness.

You are absolutely right on all points! It’s wonderful to see a young woman write about this. It’s something I wish I’d understood when I was younger.
I’m middle aged and my hubby and I have been married 32 years now. I read a lot of self-help books and went through some counseling to finally figure out most of the problems we were dealing with started with me. First of all, I was a drama queen. It was a learned behavior, my Mom was the same way. Most men don’t deal well with drama queens and quite honestly, I was inflicting a lot of misery on myself and my family.
I projected my own emotions on him – big mistake – men really don’t process events the same as women. I’d been married once before and experienced physical and emotional trauma. I finally realized my new hubby was not the same man as the first one – BIG difference – so I needed to quit expecting him to react like the other one. A big learning curve.
You are spot on about love and respect. It goes a long way with men. Good job and thanks so much for posting these points. I hope women read and re-read these points, they are very important!